Minimum Wage Debate

President Obama spent the last week touring the country to promote the benefits of raising the minimum wage. He says it will help lower the income inequality gap. Opponents say raising the minimum wage will force some employers to cut jobs. Economists are divided on whether raising the minimum wage will actually increase jobs. Listen to this story to find out.

Related Current Events

Women on sports teams make significantly less money than their male counterparts. USA Hockey dedicates fewer resources to the growth of women's hockey and provides less support. The U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team threatened to boycott the world championship unless their financial support was increased. They reached an agreement last month with USA Hockey, promising to increase the salaries of the female athletes. Listen to hear more about this historic agreement.

Poverty is an ongoing problem that is difficult to solve. One charity is addressing global poverty in a new, unique way. It is planning to provide people living in poverty with guaranteed annual salaries for about a decade. The charity’s co-founder says that people living in poverty are capable of making smart decisions about how to spend their money. These salaries will enable the poor to take steps to improve their own lives. Listen to learn more about how “universal basic income” may change people’s lives for the better.

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to increase the city’s minimum wage from the current $9.00 to $15.00 by 2020. The move has workers cheering and critics making predictions about how it will hurt local businesses. Listen to learn more about this increase and its potential impact.

Traditional charity models give people in need food, clothing, job training, or health care. But they don’t typically give cash. This is changing with a new charity called Give Directly, which gives money directly to recipients, no strings attached, and then lets them choose what to spend it on. This public radio story takes you to Kenya to hear how the process works and what people spend their money on.

Language Challenge Level

These levels of listening complexity can help teachers choose stories for their students. The levels do not relate to the content of the story, but to the complexity of the vocabulary, sentence structure and language in the audio story.

NOTE: Listenwise stories are intended for students in grades 5-12 and for English learners with intermediate language skills or higher.

Low

These stories are easier to understand and are a good starting point for everyone.

Medium

These stories have an average language challenge for students and can be scaffolded for English learners.

High

These stories have challenging vocabulary and complex language structure.